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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

It's Christmas Cheer release week on the Imaginisce blog this week! I have to say that I am not really fond of walking into stores and seeing Christmas things already up. But I do like to start thinking about my Christmas crafting. It gets me into the mindset to start my planning. There are a few things I like to start thinking about early - Christmas dress attire for the family and gifts for teachers and neighborhood pals, because we like to give out little treat to them each year. Here's a peek into some of the items I've been working on...

Mistletoe Earrings

I'm always on the hunt for unique, handmade jewelry. These earrings are the perfect accessory for a fun night in on Christmas Eve!

I cut them from a pine cone file using my Silhouette CAMEO. I made them my own by using the Imaginisce Magni-top Magnet Earring Kit and a bit of twine to turn them into earrings. I made a coordinating box so that I can give them as a gift.

Christmas Treat Bags

Each year I try to think of something cute to give to the 15 kids who live on our cul-de-sac as well as to the administrative staff at my daughters' schools. This year I am going to give them homemade s'mores kits packaged neatly in this little gift tote.

I used my CAMEO again to cut the file (by Lori Whitlock) and then I used my i-Punch to punch holes in the inside baggie. I then threaded the ribbon through the baggie and the back of the gift bag, tying it and sealing the edges in a chevron cut using my i-Magicut. I'm pretty happy, it's only July and I know what we'll be giving out this year! I hope this inspires you to start thinking about your crafty Christmas goodies. Make sure to head over to the Imaginisce blog to enter for a chance to win your own Christmas Cheer collection.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Since I'm not at CHA this time around, I thought I post a few of my favorite things that I've seen from the sneaks and from photos my scrappy friends are posting who are there. Without further ado, here's my running list, in no particular order. I know I will be editing this list as I see more throughout the next couple of days!!!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I went back a few years when digging for photos for this week's sketch at Creative Scrappers! I am trying to keep up with each year as I'm in it but sometimes I get the urge to reminisce and work on the "oldies". Anyway, these photos are of my daughter doing what she did best at the time...pulling the toilet paper off the rolls.

I faux stitched around the yellow distressed paper; the grid lines on the paper made it super easy to follow and keep my "stitching" in a nice straight line.

Prior to adhering the layered pieces to the background paper, I cut some of the scallops out of the background paper and re-purposed them again over the yellow paper.

I used wood circle frames to highlight the doily in the banner and the "memories" brad embellishment. It adds just the right amount of attention to those bits that might have gone unnoticed.

I used actual toilet paper on my layout. I gave the toilet paper a scallop treatment by folding it in half again and again until it was the size of one scallop and then I cut a scallop with my scissors, like you do to make snowflakes. Then I ruffled them on the page under my photos.

To make the word "innocent" stand out a bit more I outlined around each alpha and again over the top edge of the letters.

Friday, July 13, 2012

So it's been 2 - 3 days now since I got the email and I still have butterflies just thinking about this announcement. I know it sounds ridiculous but I am just THAT excited! If you follow my blog, you probably saw that I was a guest designer for American Crafts earlier this month. Did you see the projects I created? It was such an honor and I was so excited to see my name and photo on their blog that I took a screen shot of it. I had no idea at the time what I would use it for.

Well, I know why now. I just knew it'd be a long shot but I applied for their design team. I figured they might say no (they get hundreds of applications and only accept 20) but they might say yes! I stalked my email every day, multiple times a day until low and behold my heart skipped a beat. Could it be? Have you figured out yet that I am walking you through all the emotions I went through? I read it and then I read it again and then I quickly replied with a YES! along with a few other descriptive words, before they could change their mind and then I read it again. I couldn't believe it! Someone wake me up! I've been asked to join the 2012 - 2013...

I am joining the team with some of the most amazingly talented ladies, many of whom I've admired for so long and several of whom I've had the chance to design with!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Hi everyone! I am excited to share a layout I created that was inspired by a layout I found in the Gallery over at Memorable Seasons. You see, each month, they select a Member of the Month and the DT 'lifts' their layout. Of course, scraplifting can mean anything to anyone and doesn't have to look like the original at all. I usually use the original as inspiration and just go from there.

I altered the color of the cream alpha to make it rest so it would stand apart from the cream background paper and then I doodled around the blue alphas to make sure they wouldn't get overshadowed. I also sprinkled fussy cut flowers and stars like confetti.

I added one lone bracket to the layout to anchor the photos on the left and rounded it out (pun intended) with the flower-ish design and bracket frame. If you look at the layout above, you can see that I actually cut about 1/3 of the flower and used the scrap piece in the upper right corner of the layout.

And here's Emily's layout. You can see that I kept the basic layout, including the brackets but really made it my own. Thanks for the inspiration, Emily.

Thanks for stopping by today. Stop by the Memorable Seasons store when you get a chance. New releases are always 25% off!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Hi there,everyone! I wanted to share this itsy bitsy teeny weenie...mini album. You thought I was going to say yellow polka dot bikini, huh? Are you singing the song now? LOL So, I made this using the Little Yellow Bicycle Splash collection. We’re going to the beach in a few weeks so I couldn’t resist making this “Vacation Favorites” mini for my girls. It’s a great way to list and showcase our beach weekend highlights. I created it with my Silhouette CAMEO and a Lori Whitlock "2-page book card" file. The great thing is that I only used one piece of pattern paper!!!

The cover has a window on the front, which is the perfect size to add my title. Once I had that down as the foundation, I layered clear elements, a banner flag and flip flops. Oh and the file I downloaded calls for a wraparound band to close in the front but I changed it to close in the back so that I could make a more embellished cover and not have it interfere with all the elements. Doesn’t this look fun? Let’s take a look at the inside of the album.

Pages 3 & 4 are actually threaded through the center of the card so when I was looking at this mini spread, I could see a gap between the pages. I solved that issue by using the vellum tape strips and layering them over each other. I topped it off with an accordion flower memory numbers.

Again, trying not to over think this last set of pages, I added another tape strip, banner and dimensional die cut and I went to my trusty tear apart tags stash and pulled the July tag out to add journaling for the back page. The canvas stickers and “happy” clear cut wrapped up this spread perfectly.

Now, all I have to do is add photos and maybe a few more embellishments here and there to finish it off.

Tip: When I’m creating a mini album I try to treat each page in it as a single or double page layout, just smaller and in this case, much smaller. It really helps alleviate some of the stress of wondering what to do with all those pages.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Can you tell how excited I am right now? I JUMPED at the chance to guest design for American Crafts and the bonus was getting to work with Paige, whose work I admire and blog I stalk. Anyway, I got to work with the new Shoreline and Amy Tangerine Sketchbook collections.

I created 3 layouts, a card and an altered canvas with a vacation theme in mind. Without further ado, please take a look...

Soak Up the Sun – I created this layout focusing on a day at the beach on a recent trip to the Gulf coast.

I wanted to create a series of suns so I cut circles using various papers and then cut them into 6 pieces each and made new circles of varying papers via paper piecing. I stitched over them and then bent some of the edges to give it dimension.

Create Adventure – vacation adventures don’t have to include zip lining, airplanes or water for that matter. This particular day, we had a staycation so we stayed and played with chalk.

We created all sorts of themes with our chalk but this one was a favorite. I sketched out a crown, wand and frog and my daughter colored it in. We created this silly princess scene and had soo much fun creating our own little adventure story.

Always My Baby – We were away on Fall vacation when these candid pics were snapped of my daughter and I. She was snuggling up to me and my friend captured these moments. I just adore having such a snuggle bug.

I used stamps for part of my titling and colored a couple of the letters to make them pop. My journaling is written on the two journaling cards tucked behind the green leaves at the top.

Snow Cones Clear Card – Who doesn’t love a refreshing snow cone treat on a hot day in the sun? This was created using a clear card. I knew I wanted to create two scenes – one on the inside to write a message and the other on the front of the card. They would need to work together to be visually appealing when the card is closed.

I covered the inside with the blue paper and positioned the center of the circle behind the pinwheel on the front cover.

You Are My Sunshine Canvas – I’ve been wanting to do this canvas for my daughter’s room and when I think of an ideal vacation, I think of the sun. This will be hanging in my daughter’s room so she can daydream of the beach and sunshiny days when she’s playing inside or if the skies are grey.

Can you see the grey skies (Indigo Inspiration paper) behind the main portion of the sun?

I had fully intended to create a photo tutorial but I only took one prep photo. I just really got into making this and was having so much fun that I forgot to take more photos. The good thing is that the photo I have is probably the most important! Anyway, I thought I'd at least offer up a written step x step:

Cut your papers into strips and mod podge them to the canvas in whatever pattern you desire.

Make a large circle, you can you a plate - I used a drafting tool my hubby had. Line it up to the corner, making sure it's large enough to get all you letters in or make your letters smaller. Mod podge it to the canvas.

Make a 1/2" mask for the edge of the sun, using the same tool you used to cut the circular part of the plate.

Using painter's tape, begin to tape down the rays for the sun. Keep in mind that the parts that aren't covered is where the paint will be and the taped parts are where the papers will be exposed. You want the space between the taped areas to be wide enough to look like rays. Be sure to make the widths different sizes.

I struggled with the best way to do this next part. I'll tell you what I did but it was a little risky. I applied glue dots to the back of my letters and before I laid them on the grey skies paper I took most of the tacky off of them, simply by pressing my fingers repeatedly on the side of the glue dot that would be touching the paper. The last thing I wanted to do was to have it rip my paper when I peeled the letters off.

Once everything was laid out, I painted over the canvas. I went with a thin coat because I wanted to be able to see a faint pattern of the paper. You may choose to go heavier depending on your goals.

I set it aside to dry for a short while, peeled the tape off and carefully removed each letter.

I hope you enjoyed my creations and I hope I made the American Crafts team proud! Thanks for having me, Paige! If you started here, please head over to the American Crafts blog and leave me some love! Make sure to check out all the CHA Summer sneaks going on over there right now!

Love My Visitors

Visitors

This is my personal blog, where I share personal life events & crafts created by me, Heather Leopard. Below is a list of manufacturers/companies (in alphabetical order) I am currently working for, either as a designer and/or in a marketing capacity: Pebbles, Inc. (designer), Elle's Studio (designer), Scrapbook Circle (teacher) plus guest designer & publishing opportunities as described on my resume page.

While I am compensated by these companies, either monetarily or in product, I always say what I truly think of their products. The views and opinions expressed here on my blog are solely my own. I will not recommend something that I don't personally use and enjoy. The projects found here on my blog, The Spotted Leopard, have been created using products I have purchased and/or products I have gotten for free. I am not required to disclose, on my blog, if the projects shown were created using products I received for free or if they were my personal purchases. If you have any questions, please contact me at heather @ heatherleopard . com

All content (designs, photos/images, creative how-tos/instructions, etc.) posted on this blog are my original creations, unless otherwise noted. The content shared on this blog is for my personal use only and may not be re-posted, blogged, distributed or sold in any form without specific permission from Heather Leopard. Please respect my work and if it inspires you or your project, please give credit where credit is due by linking back to this blog. I don't mind if you copy my work for your own personal use because it inspired you, but please don't copy my work or anyone’s work for that matter, if you intend to publish it or claim it as your own. That’s just not cool and I’m sure you wouldn’t want it to happen to you either.

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